ROADS IN VENEZUELA.
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
According to a Department of Overseas Trade report on the economic and commercial conditions of Venezuela 'under the present regime, more attention has been,paid to road 'Z' than to railway construction. Since 1909; the Government has spent on new construction, repairs, and conservation of roads a sum of bolivares 43,525,000, or..nearly a third of the total capital expended by the different railway companies, estimated at halivares 136,000,000.
The total‘nextension of roads constructed or in eciarsesof construction is officially given at. 2,662 kilometres, with a further 1,775 kilemetrestunder study. Plans have been approved for two main roads to run from Caracas to San Cristobal, near the Colombian frontier, a distance when finally completed, of 872 kilometres (Gran Carretera Occidental) in the west, and from Caracas to Ciudad Bolivar; a distance of about 1,100 kilometres (Gran Carretera Oriental) in the east. The course to be followed by the latter has recently been modified. Roads available. for motor traffic already completed are :—Caracas, La Guaira; and' Meant° (38 kilometres); Carat-as, La Victoria, Maracay, and Valencia (160 kilometres); Caracas, Guatire (50 ,kilometres); Turmero to Calabozo— Carretera del Llano " (178 Eh-metres); Maracay to Ocumare de la Costa (59 kilometres); Tachira Station to San Cristobal (86 kilometres), as well es a ninnber of roads branching off from Valencia and Barquisimeto, of which that from Valencia to Puerto Cabello {54 kilometres) is entirely completed, and others are already open for fast motor traffic over a considerable distance.
There are now about 100 motor lorries and. 2,000 motorcars in the country. Carts, mules, and donkeys are still, however, extensively used for the transport of merchandise, even in competition with the railways. During the season of rains (May to October), when trade by cart over the Lianas of the Guarico and Orinoco is impossible, owners bring in their vehicles to Caracas and other places served by railways and are able to accept freight at rates sufficiently below those charged by the railway companies to divert from them a considerable amount of traffic.